Thursday, March 08, 2018

Psychotherapist
warns of epidemic of working mothers producing mentally ill children

By
Julio
Severo

A leading psychotherapist in New York City
in the last 25 years has warned that mothers who return to work too soon after
having babies are damaging their children’s mental health.

In a video for the New York Post, Erica Komisar revealed how she’s seen an “epidemic
level of mental disorders in very young children,” which she puts down to the “devaluing
of mothering in society.”

The author of Being There, Why
Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters explained that babies
experience a rush of cortisol and a great deal of stress when they’re away from
their mothers.

She argued that when working women return
from work in the evenings they spend as little as 90 minutes with their babies
before they put them to bed — and then find that they are unable to sleep
through the night because they’re craving their mothers’ attention.

“Our society tells women go back to work,
do what you want, they’ll be ok,” she explained. “But they’re not OK.”

“I was seeing it in my parent guidance
practice. I was actually seeing an epidemic level of mental disorders in very
young children who were being diagnosed and medicated at an earlier and earlier
age.”

“I
started looking at the research which backed up what I was seeing in my
practice, which is that the absence of mothers on a daily basis in children’s
lives was impacting their mental health.”

Referencing
research that’s been done since the ‘60s, she said the only thing that reduces
stress for babies is when their mothers return from work.

“I still say daycare is my least favorite
option,” she said. “You’re taking a very young baby and exposing them to a
great deal of stimulation and a great deal of fear.”

“When you take them out of their immediate
environment and put them in a group with a lot of stimulation and a lot of
people that’s not the natural environment for babies.”

“When we give mothers the option of being
home in the first three years we increase the emotional security and reduce
mental disorders.”

“On
a societal level we need to recognize mothers’ work is valuable work. We emphasize
material success and professional achievement, but there is no more valuable
or more important work.”

Even
though there is a high appreciation of mothers’ work in the homeschool
movement, the voice of Erica Komisar, who is a psychotherapist outside the
homeschool movement, reinforces the value of mothers’ presence in the lives of
their children in their early childhood. She is a voice from the secular world
confirming the same warnings that Christian homeschool leaders as Mary Pride
have given for decades.